January 2009 MMA News Archive - Page 8

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Sherdog.com will offer a free live stream of tonight's PFC "High Stakes" card, which is headlined by four championship bouts.
The Sherdog Radio Network's TJ De Santis will broadcast live from ringside tonight at 6 p.m. PST/9 p.m. EST.

Antonio ‘Minotauro’ Nogueira will not be facing Cheick Kongo at UFC 97 in Montreal, Fighters Only has learned.
Sources close to the Brazilian say he is still deciding when he will next fight, but it will not be against the French heavyweight.

Chris Horodecki, the now 21-year-old "Polish Hammer" who enjoyed a meteoric rise during the IFL's brief history, ran into trouble during his medical evaluation for Saturday's "Affliction: Day of Reckoning" event, which MMAjunkie.com reported late Wednesday.
He was unable to gain a license for competition in California, scrubbing him from his pay-per-view bout with Dan Lauzon.

With a planned lightweight attraction between Chris Horodecki and Dan Lauzon scrapped for Affliction and M-1’s “Day of Reckoning” event this coming Saturday, FiveOuncesOfPain.com has learned that officials with the promotion are planning on promoting a welterweight bout between Jay Hieron vs. Jason High to the five-bout pay-per-view telecast. The bout had originally been scheduled to air during HDNet’s telecast of the undercard.

“To get a title shot anywhere is a dream come true, but to get it in my home state is unreal. I have a lot of advantages fighting in Texas. I think God is stacking the deck against Mike. That’s my take on it anyway.”

Although comments recently made by Marcus Davis suggest otherwise, sources have confirmed that his comments about Mike Swick vs. Thiago Alves happening at UFC 94 are false. In fact, Swick's next fight likely will be determined by the outcome of the BJ Penn-Georges St. Pierre fight at 94. Should GSP win, Swick likely will have to take a fight against someone other than Alves.

Surging light heavyweight contender Luis Cane (9-1) will likely get to sink his chops into the last man to hold the World Extreme Cagefighting (WEC) 205-pound title, Steve Cantwell (7-1), at UFC 97 from The Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, on April 18.
“Banha” was supposed to collide with Keith Jardine; however, “The Dean of Mean” now has bigger and better things to take care of, namely Quinton “Rampage” Jackson,” after division champion Rashad Evans revealed he would not be ready in time for UFC 96 in March.

He arrived in Las Vegas to kick off the New Year, and was blown away by its training atmosphere. “I’ve never trained this hard in my life,” he says. “We train in Holland maybe one, two hours in the morning, maybe two hours in the evening. Training over here, wow. I’m training with the best, so I’ll be with the best.”
When MMAWeekly catches up to him, he’s giving Stephan Bonnar fits inside the caged sparring area of Xtreme Couture. After the session, Bonnar walks over and taps his glove.
“Thanks for the ass kicking,” the UFC light heavyweight says.

Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou has too much time on his hands.
He’s just finished a training session with mentor Dan Henderson and the others at Team Quest South, and says he has a stack of 10 DVD’s waiting for him at home.

Former UFC lightweight champion Jens Pulver is looking to get back on the winning track when he takes on Urijah Faber at WEC 38 in a major rematch from their fight back in June of last year.
Pulver is training for this fight on a little bit of short notice, but he takes it all in stride.

Former WEC bantamweight champion Chase Beebe has announced his intention to sign a three-fight deal with Japanese promotion DREAM this week. The fighter confirmed his intentions to MMAWeekly.com on Tuesday evening.

Controversial Dutch heavyweight Gilbert Yvel has been officially cleared to face Josh Barnett at Affliction's "Day of Reckoning" on Saturday in Anaheim, Calif.
Bill Douglas, Assistant Executive Officer of the California State Athletic Commission, informed MMAWeekly.com that Yvel had submitted his final paperwork a little after 5 p.m. today and was subsequently issued a license to compete.

Although few details are known at this time beyond it perhaps being neurologically-related, word just broke that Chris Horodecki will not be medically cleared by the CSAC to fight Saturday and thus is off Affliction: Day Of Reckoning. Affliction is trying to find a replacement for his original opponent, Dan Lauzon.

Ronys Torres' UFC debut that was scheduled for UFN 18 on April 1 is now off. Torres has suffered a knee injury and will need surgery, which will keep him out up to 6 months. No word yet on the fate of Torres' planned opponent, Melvin Guillard.

One-time World Extreme Cagefighting fighter Nissen Osterneck (5-1 MMA, 0-0 UFC) will likely make his UFC debut against Nate Loughran (9-1 MMA, 1-1 UFC) in April at UFC Fight Night 18.
The fight is in the works and has been pitched to at least one of the fighters, a source close to one of the competitors told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com).

“To me the next challenge is to move up a division. It’s not because I don’t see middleweight as a challenge but because my body’s getting bigger. I always came down, came down and because of my age my body’s getting bigger and bigger. It’s something that I needed to do. I think the timing is good to go up. I may fight the winner of Babalu vs. Sokoudjou but I don’t know for sure. It’s eventually up to Affliction and M-1 who they want me to fight. It’s a tough division because every guy is explosive, every guy is fast and has good strength. It’s a tough division and there’s a lot of good names. It’s not my goal to be the best light heavyweight in the world, something I’ve always wanted is to be a heavyweight. I plan, over one year maybe two years, to build to heavyweight.”

There is a possible bantamweight number one contender eliminator match being discussed between former featherweight top contender Jeff Curran (29-10-1) and the undefeated training partner of Urijah Faber, Joseph Benavidez (9-0), for WEC 40 in Chicago, Ill., on April 5.
Curran’s last two fights for the Zuffa-owned promotion have been in the 145-pound featherweight division. In those two matches we saw him lose to former champion Urijah Faber by submission at WEC 31 and then fall to reigning division kingpin Mike Thomas Brown via decision at WEC 34 in June.

Bellator Fighting Championships, a first of its kind mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion, officially announced today the exclusive signing of Jorge “Gamebred” Masvidal, one of Florida’s top fighters.
As the latest addition to the lightweight (155 lb.) division of Bellator’s tournament, premiering on ESPN Deportes April 4, 2009, Masvidal is poised for a breakout performance on the national MMA scene.